I’ve gone by “Libby” for my entire life, all 40 years and eight months of it. No one EVER misspelled it, not even once, until I moved to Richmond seven years ago. Then – POOF! -my goof-proof name ran into some serious interference. Literally everyone I encountered would spell my name with an “ie.” (i.e. “Libbie”) YUCK! It drives me craaaaaazy! I mean, gasket-popping crazy! People still do it all the time, even people whom I consider (considered?) to be very good friends and have known for years. People often send an email, obviously spelling my name correctly since it is part of my address, but then in the the message, they call me “Libbie.” It makes me want to wretch. What is a polite way of telling someone that after years of friendship he/she is still spelling my first name wrong? Do I spell any of my friend’s names wrong? I certainly hope not; I know how annoying it is.
Libby with a "Y"
The root of the problem lies in the fact that here in Richmond there is a well-know street called Libbie Avenue cutting through town, so people have that particular spelling engraved on their subconscious. But hasn’t anyone ever heard of Libby’s Canned Vegetables? Remember the jingle? I could never live it down when I was a kid; it followed me everywhere. “Libby, Libby, Libby on the label, label, label.” If you know what I am taking about, please feel free to skip the next annoying sentence. (You probably already know what it is anyway.) “And you’ll like it, like it, like it, on your table, table, table.” Maybe I should start singing the jingle to people who misspell my name, over and over and over again, just like the hard rock they played to smoke Noriega out of the Vatican Embassy.
Thanks for reading the first installment!
LibbY
She’s damn funny but she is NOT a street. She’s Libby, dammit! Nice blog, girl.